Judy Zebra Knight, born Judith Darlene Hampton (born March 16, 1946), usually known as JZ Knight, is an American mystic teacher and author, and is known for claiming to be channel of a spiritual entity named Ramtha.

Knight grew up in poverty and was unable to go to college. After graduating from high school, she dropped out of business school. She later worked at the cable television industry, and due to her work moved to Tacoma, Washington, where a psychic told her the "Enlightened One" would appear to her in the future.[10] She says that Ramtha first appeared to her in her kitchen in 1977.[10][12]

Knight appeared on The Merv Griffin Show in 1985 and wrote the autobiographical A State of Mind in 1987. Time called her "probably the most celebrated of all current channelers".[13] Ramtha's School of Enlightenment website says that, since 1988, through the JZ Knight Humanities Foundation, Knight has donated $1,181,068 to 200 graduating high-school seniors "that they may pursue their educational goals".[citation needed] In 1996, a total of $280,000 was given to 39 graduating seniors.[citation needed]

Knight is currently the president of JZK, Inc and Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, located near the town of Yelm, Washington, and the name of Ramtha is copyrighted under JZ Knight. She also won a court case which affirmed that she is the sole legal channeler of the entity Ramtha.[14] There have been over 120 books and 40 DVDs released by RSE, JZK Inc. or independently.[citation needed] She also appeared in the 2004 documentary What the Bleep Do We Know!?, produced by members of the Ramtha School,[15][16] which has been a store in Yelm, Washington, along with an online store which sells products not connected with Ramtha's teaching. The store sells kitchen utensils, women's apparel, cosmetic products and pet supplies, among other products.[17]

After an absence from public view for several years, she returned to public speaking on radio and in magazines and workshops. She was a guest on Coast To Coast AM with George Noory on August 14, 2011.

"Ramtha" (the name is claimed to be derived from Ram and to mean "the God" in Ramtha's language) is the name of a reputed entity whom Knight says she channels. According to Knight, Ramtha was a Lemurian warrior who fought the Atlanteans over 35,000 years ago.[18] Ramtha speaks of leading an army over 2.5 million strong (more than twice the estimated world population at about 30,000 BC) for 63 years, and conquering three fourths of the known world (which was allegedly going through cataclysmic geological changes). According to Ramtha, he led the army for 10 years until he was betrayed and almost killed.[19]

Ramtha says he spent the next seven years in isolation recovering and observing nature, the seasons, his army making homes and families, and many other things. He later mastered many skills, including foresight and out-of-body experiences, until he led his army to the Indus River while in his late fifties. Ramtha taught his soldiers everything he knew for 120 days, he bid them farewell, rose into the air and in a bright flash of light he ascended before them. He made a promise to his army that he would come back to teach them everything he had learned. JZ Knight says that in 1977 Ramtha appeared before her and told her that he had come to help her over the ditch. JZ Knight became his first student of what he calls the great work.[18]

Ramtha is the central figure (the "master teacher") of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment, started by Knight in 1987 near the town Yelm, Washington. Classes (or "dialogues") had been held around the world for the previous 10 years. There are currently over 6,000 students of Ramtha's teachings.[9]

A central theme of Ramtha's teachings involves the internalization of divinity ("God is in Us", "You are God, Behold God"). Ramtha is described as having brought his knowledge to many ancient civilizations in the world such as the Ancient Egyptians. The website also suggests that traces of the lineage of the original teachings and philosophies he taught 35,000 years ago have appeared throughout history in the schools of philosophers such as Socrates, religions such as Hinduism and Judaism, and the works of great minds such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.[20]

The concept that consciousness and energy create the nature of reality

The challenge to conquer yourself

Ramtha's teachings appear to be a mixture of Jungian philosophy, Western occult traditions and contemporary positive-thinking attitudes (such as New Age beliefs)[21] and have yet to stand against elementary skepticism or scrutiny.[22] Predictions made by the disembodied entity have either failed to come true (e.g. predicting that a holocaust would take place in 1985, or that the USA would be involved in a major war in 1985) or the predicted scenarios are too wide to evaluate and/or have too large an error margin to be considered, which is usually the case with channelers.[21]

When Knight says she is channeling Ramtha she speaks mostly in English in what sounds like an accent from the Indian Raj,[22][23] sometimes in a simplistic way. The claimed entity "Ramtha" has expressed confusion about modern items (or even the ability to read English),[24] although he seems to have clear understanding of complex issues of modern physics, such as the quantum field or neurology, which appear frequently in his speeches.[25] During the channeling of Ramtha, JZ Knight behaves a bit differently and speaks in a deeper and stern voice.

In his teachings "Ramtha" has made several controversial statements such as that Christianity is a "backward" religion, that Jesus' parables can be explained by means of photon waves and probability,[26] that "murder isn't really wrong or evil" (if one believes in reincarnation),[27] or (during the court case JZ Knight v Jeff Knight) Jeff Knight stated that Ramtha had declared that HIV is Nature's way of 'getting rid of' homosexuality.[26]

Most books regarding Ramtha and RSE come from JZK Publishing, one of the several companies started by Knight. Other books somewhat sympathetic to Ramtha, such as Finding Enlightenment: Ramtha's School of Ancient Wisdom by Gordon Melton, have ties to RSE in other ways. The author of Finding Enlightenment testified for Knight in Knight vs. Knight (1992–1995) against her former husband, Jeffery Knight (see below).

Skeptics point to Ramtha's story as proof that he does not exist. Ramtha claims to come from the continent of Lemuria and to have conquered Atlantis. The existence of the two locations are considered of legendary nature, and neither have been found. Furthermore, the claim that Ramtha led an army of 2.5 million contradicts estimates of the world population at 33,000 BC, and her claims of clairvoyant, telepathic, telekinetic and other ESP abilities, for which there is no scientific support, have been heavily criticized by skeptics and scientific communities across the world.[28][29][30]

Ramtha's claim that every person can learn to create their own reality[31] is itself a philosophical paradox. Julian Baggini, in his book The pig that wants to be eaten, argues that if everyone was capable of creating their own realities with their minds, it would be problematic as one person could then create a reality in which no one was allowed to create their own realities.[32]

Magician and skepticJames Randi said that Ramtha's believers have "no way of evaluating [her teachings]",[33] while Carl Sagan in his book The Demon-Haunted World says that "the simplest hypothesis is that Ms. Knight makes 'Ramtha' speak all by herself, and that she has no contact with disembodied entities from the Pleistocene Ice Age." He goes on to write a list of questions that Ramtha's answers would help us determine whether he is actually a disembodied entity from the paleolithic times (such as "What were the indigenous languages, and social structure?", "What was their writing like?" or "How does he know that he lived 35,000 years ago?"), and ends by saying that "[i]nstead, all we are offered are banal homilies."[22]

Knight's former husband, Jeff Knight, in an interview in 1992 with Joe Szimhart, said that Ramtha's teachings are a "farce" and that they are "just a money making business for [JZ Knight]". He also said that students of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment are "involved in a very dangerous, very evil corrupt thing".[34]

Attacks and criticism against Ramtha's teachings and Ramtha's School of Enlightenment have also been made by former students of the school. David McCarthy, a Yelm resident and former student of the school between 1989 and 1996, has accused the school of being a cult. He further claims that he was intimidated during his studies there, and he felt like mind control was being exerted by Knight and the school. He said "At one point I was running around scared I was going to get eaten by the lizard people."[35] McCarthy became disappointed, not only with his own experience of Ramtha's teachings but also as he had cut ties from his family to become a student as they lived in a different country.[36] This led McCarthy to form a group called "Life After Ramtha's School of Enlightenment", which questions the authenticity of Ramtha and encourages people to come out and express their experiences after their realization that the RSE is a cult. The school has also been characterized as a cult by skeptic Michael Shermer in his book Why People Believe Weird Things.[23]

Glenn Cunningham, a former bodyguard of Knight's, in an interview with David McCarthy details the inner workings of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment and criticizes various activities (such as trademarking ideas and phrases that had been coined by other authors many years before - for example, the idea of "Blue Body", or mixing quantum physics with new age ideas, which can be found in Vera Stanley Alder's From the Mundane to the Magnificent, first published in 1979) of Knight's and aspects of Ramtha which he simply saw as Knight acting. Among the things he mentions is the fact that Ramtha mispronounces the same words that Knight mispronounces, and that Ramtha quotes the same books that Knight has read.[24] Glenn Cunningham admits in the video interview, that he was prone to lying to students when he saw fit or thought that it may help them.[24]

Furthermore, Ramtha's teachings as they are portrayed in the movie What the Bleep Do We Know!?, not only in the general gist of the film (which was directed and funded by students of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment) but also in instances where Ramtha is interviewed on screen, have been heavily criticized by the scientific community across the globe,[37][38][39][40] and skeptics,[41] such as James Randi.[42]

Knight has been involved in several court disputes, some personal and others business-related. She brought a suit against a woman from Berlin named Julie Ravell for disturbing Knight's psychic state and leaving her "hanging in spiritual limbo" during the five years Ravell claimed she was also channeling Ramtha. The case was brought to the supreme court in Vienna and lasted over five years, at the end of which Austria's supreme court awarded copyright to Knight as the sole channeler of Ramtha, and Ravell was made to pay $800 in psychic damages to Knight.[14] Another case involving copyright and trademark ownership was JZK, Inc vs. Glandon, in which Joseph Glandon was accused of distributing copyrighted teachings of Ramtha.[43]

In Knight vs. Knight (1992–1995), Jeff Knight alleges that he lost years of his life by postponing modern medical treatment for his HIV infection, due to advice from his wife that Ramtha could heal him. The court decided against him, but he died before he could appeal the court's decision.[44]

Knight, through JZK Inc., accused WhiteWind Weaver, a Thurston County citizen, of stealing her ideas and using her and Ramtha's teachings in her workshops. A trial began on March 10, 2008, in Thurston County Superior Court and at the end of it Knight was awarded about $10,000 after the court's decision against WhiteWind Weaver.[45]

Knight also refused to attend court as a witness in a case involving a 15-year old who claimed rape against two students of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment. The 15-year old girl had written a letter to Knight which mentioned that Wayne Allen Geis, her dancing and acting teacher, had engaged in sexual intercourse with her from 1995 to 1997. The illicit activities had also involved Ruth Beverly Martin. They had apparently told the girl that sexual intercourse would help her to relax and improve her acting ability. Knight invited the girl to a retreat at the school in November 1999. In the retreat, Ramtha questioned the girl, her father, Geis and Martin. This inquiry took place on stage in front of an audience of over 800 people for about an hour. Geis and Martin confessed to having molested the girl, and the school contacted authorities. Charged with 10 counts of first-degree sexual misconduct with a minor, Geis and Martin pleaded not guilty and the case went to trial.[46] Prosecutors were reluctant to have Knight appear in court due to the "circus atmosphere" that would have been created. Knight herself claimed that she had been in a trance and did not remember anything of what was said in the retreat inquiry.[47]

During the 2012 Washington State general elections, Knight and RSE donated to various Democratic campaigns. Knight and the school subsequently came under scrutiny when videos surfaced on YouTube suggesting deep-seated bigotry, antisemitism, and anti-Catholicism.[48][49][50]

This is the first video that highlights the disciplines practiced at Ramtha's School of Enlightenment. Included are interviews with students, scholars, and JZ Knight. Available in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese and Spanish.[19]

In Search of the Self: The Role of Consciousness in the Construction of Reality 8-volume video set. 9 hours, 38 minutes (NTSC/PAL)

A Conference on Contemporary Spirituality, February 8–9, 1997, Yelm, Washington. An International group of scholars from the fields of physics, psychology, sociology, and religious studies gathered.[19]

^"It would be foolish to accept [psychokinesis] (...) without solid scientific data": Sagan, Carl (1995). The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a candle in the dark. Headline. pp. 208–212. ISBN0-7472-7745-1..
A similar position is made by Richard Feynmann: Feynman, Richard P. (1999). The Meaning of It All. Penguin. pp. 68–71. ISBN0-14-027635-1.